Category Archives: This Week’s Hype

This Week’s Hype

Posted on January 21, 2022 by woit

For many years, editions here of This Week’s Hype were mainly devoted to bogus claims that someone had found a way to get a testable prediction out of string theory or other “evidence for string theory”. Recently there have been … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 30 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on October 8, 2021 by woit

The latest from the BBC: String theory – a simple way to understand the universe Not worth more comment than it’s another reminder that this nonsense continues to be heavily promoted in our most prominent and respected mass media. I’m … Continue reading →

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This Week’s Hype

Posted on September 8, 2021 by woit

Today Quanta has One Lab’s Quest to Build Space-Time Out of Quantum Particles. No, this kind of experiment is not going to “Build Space-Time”, now or ever. This kind of obfuscation about quantum gravity advances neither fundamental physics nor the … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 17 Comments

The God Equation

Posted on April 4, 2021 by woit

When I was out for a bike ride yesterday I stopped by a large book store and looked to see if they had a copy of Michio Kaku’s new book The God Equation. They didn’t, but did have plenty of … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, This Week's Hype | 32 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on January 25, 2021 by woit

I had just been thinking the other day about how little one hears recently about the multiverse, with those previously involved in heavy promotion of the idea perhaps having thought better of it. Today however, Quanta has Physicists Study How … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 22 Comments

Yesterday’s Hype

Posted on August 1, 2020 by woit

Every summer CERN runs a summer student programme, designed to bring in a group of students to participate in scientific activities at CERN and provide lectures for them about the basics and latest state of the field of high energy … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 28 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on March 25, 2020 by woit

Maybe it’s because people are at home with nothing else to do, but somehow the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be having the side-effect of generating new infections of “test of string theory” hype, a disease common many years back that … Continue reading →

Posted in Swampland, This Week's Hype | 8 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on March 20, 2020 by woit

In this disturbing time of pandemic, it’s reassuring to see that some activities continue as usual. On the string theory hype front, yesterday NASA put out a press release announcing that Chandra Data Tests ‘Theory of Everything’, which starts by … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 3 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on February 28, 2020 by woit

Sabine Hossenfelder already has this covered, but I wanted to add a few comments about this week’s hype, a new article in Quanta magazine by Philip Ball entitled Wormholes Reveal a Way to Manipulate Black Hole Information in the Lab … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 32 Comments

Are Physical Laws Inevitable?

Posted on December 11, 2019 by woit

The last couple days have seen various discussions online generated by a piece at Quanta Magazine with the dubious headline Why the Laws of Physics Are Inevitable and an even worse sub-headline claiming “physicists working on the ‘bootstrap’ have rederived … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 47 Comments